Such a rich and wonderful day with two groups of Wild Art kids today, that I thought I'd share it as a photo montage.
The teen group went to check out the old dump site along the Dump Road, and we saw a shimmering orange puddle where rust and oil leaches out from the dump pile.
From there we headed up to Everhard Creek, where we used spoons to harvest some clay. That was about all we had time for today, but we've hatched a plan to return next week with a bucket, and try filtering the clay.
The younger group returned to the forest village they'd begun making the week before, and carried on creating things to sell at their shops and restaurants. One group led a tour to a beaver lodge, and later became petty criminals, robbing the shops and calling the 'police' on each other. We discovered some as-yet-unidentified little calciferous things (photo included), and returned very wet and muddy - the perfect ending to a great adventure!
That's the robber escaping on the left, and his 'boss' sitting carving a stick in the shop the two of them created.
These are the unidentified little calciferous semi-spheres we found on the forest floor.
A 'fire pit'.
An abandoned cedar crown.
Cedar crowns for sale at one of the shops.
Unidentified (maybe heron?) prints.
The beaver lodge! Entrances are barely visible on the left and centre-right, behind a few large sticks.
Looking at bubbles in the ice and a watery landscape underneath.
For as long as I can remember, I've been hearing mumblings of concern over the increased safety-restrictions placed on our children. We like to talk about "when we were kids" and how our lives were so much freer; so much more dangerous. "And we turned out just fine." But when it comes to our own kids we're still terrified, placing ever more layers of armour on them and keeping them ever closer, ever more restricted in their movements. We read great articles about how necessary it is for our kids to explore and take risks. And then we see them heading out without a helment, freak out, chase them down, apply helmet, and tell them not to go out of our sight. Or something like that.
I'm not immune to those struggles, as a parent. But because I teach, and am thinking every day about how to engage people I work with in healthy, dangerous play, I have the opportunity to keep reminding myself why it matters to let my children take risks.
Frozen ditches!
Last week I took a couple of groups of kids out exploring ice. We talked a lot
about ice safety, how to recognize dangerous areas, and how to
deal with cracking ice, to avoid falling through. We looked down
and estimated the thickness of the ice based on bubbles and twigs
that were frozen into and floating under the ice. We also
cautiously went out on all fours and bellies, exploring the ice,
knowing that it wasn't likely strong enough to stand on, but
learning to gauge the danger (how deep was the water under the ice? how thick was the
ice? how concentrated was our weight? was it cracking?). In some
places the ice did crack, and the kids had to safely navigate away
from the more dangerous areas as they discovered them. They also
stomped around on some shallow areas and stomped right through
some of the ice, into the mud.
I feel that this dangerous play is essential
learning - it enables the kids to take risks in relative safety and to learn
from them. This is not only essential for wilderness activities,
but also for life in general, since so much of what we learn
requires risk, and it's nice to be able to mitigate the severity
of the risks from a place of personal understanding. I feel this
leads to greater safety, and in my experience with teaching I have
definitely seen that the more cautious risks children take, the
more confident they become, and the less severe their stumbles
are, when they make them.
PS: Ever hear of belly hockey? The correct rink for this is a 2-inch thick layer of ice over a couple of feet of murky creek water. Grab yourself some nice sticks and a chunk of wood for a puck... and have at it!
The younger group returned to the forest village they'd begun making the week before, and carried on creating things to sell at their shops and restaurants. One group led a tour to a beaver lodge, and later became petty criminals, robbing the shops and calling the 'police' on each other. We discovered some as-yet-unidentified little calciferous things (photo included), and returned very wet and muddy - the perfect ending to a great adventure!
